Palaeontology

Mystery surrounds cave skull with stalagmite growing through it

By T.K. Randall
August 24, 2025 ·  5 comments

Image: Petralona Skull Covered By Stalagmite
Credit: Nadina / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) Discovered within the darkness of Petralona Cave, this remarkable skull - which belongs to an archaic species of human - is notable for the fact that it has a stalagmite growing directly through it.

Initially found in 1960 and often referred to as "Petralona Man", this intriguing specimen has long left paleoanthropologist's scratching their heads.

A recent study has concluded that it is neither Neanderthal nor human, leaving a question mark over exactly which species of archaic human ancestor it actually belonged to.The only thing we can say for certain is that the individual was male.

The skull is also now believed to date back at least 300,000 years, possibly longer depending on exactly how long the stalagmite growing through it took to form.

One possibility is that it belonged to the species Homo heidelbergensis, but this has yet to be confirmed.

Whatever the case, the skull remains one of the world's most unique paleoanthropological discoveries.

Source: Live Science | Comments (5)

Tags: Human, Ancestor